Love him or loathe him, there’s no denying Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson’s poker abilities – and the 2000 WSOP Main Event winner and former Full Tilt pro proved them yet again by taking down the WSOP Europe €1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-or-Better Event at the Kings Casino in Rozvadov for a €39,289 ($45,677) payday.

The victory brought Ferguson his 6th career gold bracelet and his 5th cash of the WSOP Europe series being held in Leon Tsoukernik’s ‘poker island’ close to the German border, Ferguson posing for a winner’s bracelet photo with old friend and Full Tilt compadre Phil Hellmuth…

…but it didn’t take long before Ferguson’s shady past as one of those who many allege knew of the Full Tilt scandal was picked up on once again by Daniel Negreanu, the outspoken Canadian critic of ‘Jesus’ tweeting cattily in response…

It’s almost (or completely) impossible to cover a Chris Ferguson poker story without bringing up his involvement in the biggest scam/scandal in poker history, and Negreanu is not a man who will let it lie either, publicly denouncing Ferguson when he appeared at last year’s WSOP in Vegas.

Nevertheless, from a purely poker-playing standpoint Ferguson’s newest addition to the ‘trophy cabinet’ came as a result of his excellent play – the mathematically-inclined pro showing his great skill in almost every format of the game, and here in Rozvadov the PLO 8-or-better event was right up his street, two of his previous bracelets coming in similar variants of the game.

The 92-player event saw fellow American John Racener in the mix with a deep run, Racener last year equalling Ferguson’s record-setting number of cashes in WSOP events Racener fell in 10th place, however, leaving a truly international field to battle it out at the final table for the bracelet and the lion’s share of the €132,411 ($153,941) prizepool.

The multiple-bracelet holder was the quiet man of the table for a good while, allowing others to do the dirty work once again in the early stages, before storming in with a vengeance to knock out the remaining 4 players, including his heads-up opponent, the Ukrainian pro Stanislav Wright.

When the end came, it was a horrible run-out which ended the Ukrainian’s dreams of silverware, Ferguson’s turn/river-hitting wheel seizing the title.

Afterwards he told WSOP reporters:

“It’s kind of surreal because I wasn’t expecting to win this bracelet at all. I was just trying to sneak in, just trying to advance a little bit. And it just kind of happened. It’s the best way.”

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